CHAMBERSBURG - Ed LeMieux was looking for a ministry when he first volunteered to help in the kitchen and deliver meals for Chambersburg's Meals on Wheels program 12 years ago.

He had tried other things to keep busy and stay active following his retirement, including starting a landscaping and nursery business, Rockville Gardens, which he eventually turned over to his son, then golfing and eventually doing a stint as a volunteer cleaning up trash dumped in the Michaux State Forest.

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A cake was preseented to help celebrate Ed LeMieux's retirement from the Meals On Wheels program. Members held a luncheon Monday, July 18, 2016 at First Lutheran Church, Chambersburg.(Photo: Markell DeLoatch, Public Opinion)

But it wasn't until he began volunteering with Meals on Wheels that he truly found his calling, and a ministry that fulfilled his need to give back, to repay his maker for the blessings he saw heaped on him during his lifetime.

"God has been great to me, and I wanted to do something for others," he said.

Once LeMieux started volunteering with the local organization, he was hooked.

"I couldn't stop," he said.

LeMieux, who resigned as president of the Chambersburg Meals on Wheels program this week, was honored with a reception attended by the board and its three employees Monday at First Lutheran Church.

He was president of the local Meals on Wheels for eight years, served as the organization's vice-president two years prior to that and worked in the kitchen and delivered meals for two years before becoming involved as a leader.

Board member Jake Garrison praised LeMieux's service to the organization, saying once LeMieux became president, "the board hasn't been the same, in a positive way."

"You got our finances in order, you established a budget," he told LeMieux. "Thank you for all your hard work, especially for establishing all the policies and procedures we needed to run this organization efficiently."

Meals on Wheels vice president Neil Brown said one of LeMieux's legacies is the organizational skills he brought to the organization.

Back eight years ago, he said, the organization's single personnel document was lengthy, outdated, hard to read and understand.

Today, he said Chambersburg Meals on Wheels has 63 such documents, all shorter, clear and concise.

Board member Gary Dickinson said one of the things LeMieux did for the organization was to define the area included in its delivery zone, setting it at about a 70-square-mile area that includes most of what is considered the Greater Chambersburg area.

During his tenure, the organization doubled its income and expanded routes. Today it delivers daily meals Monday through Friday to more than 120 shut-ins, the handicapped, elderly and convalescing individuals who can't prepare meals themselves.

He credits his success as an organizer and administrator for the local organization to "never being satisfied with the status quo."

LeMieux and his wife Dolores, who have been married 68 years, came to Pennsylvania 20 years ago.

The now-retired Meals on Wheels president said he has learned to love Chambersburg and its residents who "spend a lot of time thinking of others."

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A group gathers for a luncheoon Monday with Ed LeMieux, who is retiring from the Meals On Wheels program, at First Lutheran Church, Chambersburg.(Photo: Markell DeLoatch, Public Opinion)